Chapter 233

“Are you referring to the entire French representative team?”

“Ah, the university and research departments have separate schedules, so you just need to take care of the high school division.”

At those words, Elias whistled.

“Hm… Luca’s popular.”

“You take it.”

“Should I?”

“No.”

I just said it casually.

I absolutely couldn’t pair someone as twisted as earlier with Elias. There was a high probability that within less than an hour of meeting, Elias would try to crack his head.

“Anyway, I have one proposal for you. But since you have to listen to my story, there won’t be time to guide the tour?”

Elias looked up at me and smiled. I didn’t know why he was concluding that on his own, but I had no intention of refusing their request.

‘They’re guys who came as VIPs.’

We were in charge of responding to them. Although it was limited to welcome ceremony protocol and lodging security, considering the situation where they officially contacted and requested to use me as a guide, accepting their request was a way to avoid annoyance rather than refusing.

Moreover, there was no particular reason not to go. Anyway, whatever the mentally immature kids grumbled about didn’t really get to me properly.

‘…Well, that said, if an opportunity comes to shut them up quietly, I have no intention of letting it pass.’

The moment I intended to accept their demand, contrary to Elias’s intention, Leo’s voice was heard.

“I’ll go.”

The friends’ conversation sounds completely stopped. The staff looked at Leo with a troubled face and said.

“Ah, they said they want to see Askanian.”

“We can go together.”

Silence flowed.

All team members looked at him.

Narce and Elias were probably worried about giving away that we were already close, and the rest were probably surprised that Leo trying to do something with me was reality. The staff stroked his chin for a moment and answered.

“Shall we? But since both the Eszett deputy leader and leader would be absent, could one other member come instead?”

“Me! I wanna go!”

When Elias stepped forward, the staff’s face darkened. A question appeared on Elias’s expression.

The moment Tsheringen, who had only been smiling, was about to open her mouth, Heike raised her hand.

“I’ll go.”

Leo’s expression changed slightly to surprise and then returned to blank.

I shared most information with my friends right away if it wasn’t a topic that would anger them. So, the news that I had become close with Heike was already told around yesterday lunch.

Although she had briefly heard the story from me, it seemed novel since that taciturn guy stepped forward himself.

The staff nodded to Heike and asked me.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

I smiled at Heike and followed the staff out. Heike hurriedly put on her robe again and chased after us.

I laid down a soundproofing magic and said.

“We get to hang out together again.”

“It’s work.”

Heike said in a strangely excited voice. On the surface, it was. It probably wouldn’t be a playful atmosphere.

But I couldn’t not know that she followed because I was going. I smiled lightly and said.

“Anyway.”

If I discovered another white phosphorus match, it would be good to share it right away, so it was good to be with her.

We warped to the top floor of the banquet hall building where Academy Puissance was, following the staff’s guidance. When I knocked twice on the open door and entered, I saw the high school division first place I had met earlier.

I greeted the Frenchman who raised his eyebrows upon seeing me.

“We meet again. Antoine Gramont.”

“Ah, you came. It’s nice to see you again even though we just met.”

He smiled brightly and gestured to his friends sitting at the table.

“These are our representative team’s high school division friends.”

“I see. Nice to meet you. I’m Lucas Askanian.”

“I’m Heike Ainsidel.”

The three high school students he introduced just stared at me with round eyes despite our greetings. Seeing them give strange smiles upon looking at my face, it seemed they shared similar intentions with Gramont.

A tall New Human stood up and extended his hand.

“I’m Maëlys Lafayette.”

After that, fortunately, the other two greeted me and Heike without issue.

After short greetings, I took out the notebook I had brought and said.

“Is there a place you wanted to see? There are many places I’d like to introduce, but time is short, so if you give opinions, we’ll visit those first.”

No one opened their mouth.

They just blankly looked at me.

‘Are you sure you want to sightsee?’

Of course, that Gramont or whatever probably called me alone to pick a fight. What did he expect? It was decided from the moment he named me.

If that’s what he wanted, I wouldn’t let it slide easily.

I smiled appropriately and said.

“No particular place you want to go? Then… let’s go to Unter den Linden first.”

*  *  *

Unter den Linden was a street in Berlin starting from the Brandenburg Gate.

I looked at the sky while shielding my eyes with my hand.

Blue linden trees preserved in July’s state with magic were lined up under the clear blue sky. Gramont said to me.

“The weather’s nice.”

“It is. Even the weather seems to welcome you all.”

“…!”

Heike almost laughed but cleared her throat. I had just given a greeting that people of this era gave without much thought, but to Heike who knew my personality, it must have sounded awkward.

Gramont kept smiling as he looked around.

“Berlin is indeed wonderful. What comes out if we go straight ahead?”

“If you go to the end of this street, you’ll reach Museum Island on the Spree River. Lustgarten and Berlin Cathedral are also that way. If you go down a bit, there’s the old imperial palace too. Do you like museums?”

“I do! What do they mainly exhibit?”

“For what’s exhibited at the Neues Museum, Egyptian artifacts are representative. If you want to see Greek and Roman plaster sculptures, I recommend going to the Altes Museum, but if time is short, just visiting the Neues Museum is fine. There’s an exhibition hall there too. You can also see prehistoric artifacts there.”

From the perspective of someone not from an imperialist power, it didn’t feel great to give such introductions. Egyptian artifacts, huh. How did they get them?

‘What do you mean how. They dug up someone else’s land and stole them.’

I recalled how their looting habits caused major controversies in Joseon too.

After that, we walked straight ahead without speaking.

From the Brandenburg Gate to the Spree River, Heike and I introduced Humboldt University and the State Opera House. The guys listened to our explanations with moderate interest.

Then, Gramont asked with a polite smile.

“Paris has bustling streets like this too, isn’t there something a bit different?”

“Well. Places where people live are all similar. Anyway, we’ll go to the museum soon.”

“Where is Wittenberg University? I want to see the birthplace of the Reformation. We’re not Lutherans, but as Protestant believers, I wanted to visit at least once.”

“That’s in the Saxony region. We can’t take you outside the jurisdiction of Brandenburg.”

“That’s a shame.”

Gramont answered like that and conversed with his peers.

I didn’t pay close attention to their conversation, but as their voices gradually got louder, I couldn’t help but hear.

“Their biblical interpretation is really strange. Cults are different no matter what. What kind of pastor interprets the Bible that way in sermons?”

“Did you actually dissect how different it is from our church? That’s why they’re a cult~ It’s already too far from what we know.”

‘They’re talking about Pleroma.’

I agreed. No matter who saw it, interpreting the same being differently was extremely shady from the start. It was a tactic cults loved to use.

Moreover, this was something I felt from Ludovika, but they pulled plausible verses from here and there and patched them together to rationalize their claims. At this point, it was just Bible recreation.

“That aside.”

Heike said quietly from the side. A one-way soundproofing magic was laid.

“Why does it feel like they’re dissing us while dissing Pleroma? The content is clearly dissing Pleroma.”

Because they were talking while looking at us.

They were glancing at me while talking about Pleroma, so how could it not be targeting me?

‘Little punks.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep